Recruiting is a tricky business. When unemployment is low, it’s incredibly challenging to find top talent. When unemployment is high, you have hundreds of resumes to sort through to find top talent. In both cases, your applicant tracking system (ATS) can help you work smarter. What tools should you be using today to give your recruiting efforts a competitive edge? 

What to Look for in an ATS 

The majority of recruiters are likely familiar with ATS platforms as a centralized repository for candidate information. Companies can track all candidate data, including resumes, testing, and interview notes from one hub. However, the ATS platforms today do much more than store data. Some of the next-generation features found in modern ATS platforms are fueled by artificial intelligence that can improve data analysis and automate and optimize the more manual aspects of the hiring process. The key features of today’s modern ATS platforms include: 

  • Career sites that allow you to list job openings and allow candidates to apply. Look for ATS platforms with customized forms where candidates can apply, a candidate ranking system, and the ability to email straight from the candidate record. 
  • Advanced search features that allow you to tag candidates, search candidate listings, and filter by keywords, skills, experience, or other specific metrics.  
  • Applicant tracking and candidate relationship features let you upload documents or other candidate data with assessment tools and reference checks.  
  • Interview tools that allow you to schedule straight from the ATS, video interviewing and features let you enter notes straight into the candidate record. 
  • Analytics from these platforms is increasingly sophisticated. You can use these tools to store and generate reports that pinpoint hiring bottlenecks. You can track which job boards yield the best candidates. You can even manage advertising campaigns and view their effectiveness. 
  • Workflow customizations in these next-generation platforms make them extremely useful for improving the efficiency of your recruiting teams. These customizations can automate the hiring process in ways that allow your recruiting team to focus on what’s most important—closing the candidate. 

While 98% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS platforms, the mid-market and small companies have not fully leveraged these tools to improve their time to hire. Enterprise organizations may not have fully utilized the most modern features, relying instead on a legacy platform that needs an upgrade. 

How Exelare Improves Recruiting Productivity 

Exelare offers our clients a cloud-based, secure, fully modernized ATS experience. Our platform has all of the features you should look for in today’s next-gen, AI-powered ATS tools. From candidate and job management, spot-on analytics, and customer relationship management to search tools that let you cull resumes from the leading job boards in the nation, Exelare is the tool you need to get the best candidates into your business. Contact us to find out more.